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Passengers who disembarked from the Norwegian Spirit (left) on Friday awaited transportation outside the Black Falcon Terminal in Boston. (Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff) |
High tide for Hub
Bucking a national trend, Boston’s port has seen record numbers of passengers in recent years
When Thomas Gibbons’s girlfriend persuaded him to go on his first cruise five years ago, he wasn’t wild about the idea. The Lakeville construction worker preferred road trips on his motorcycle to being “cooped up’’ on a ship. But the cruises were more entertaining — and comfortable — than he thought, and he’s been on three since, including two to Bermuda out of Boston.
“It was so easy just to jump on the cruise ship there,’’ said the 48-year-old Gibbons, who was recently recognized by the Massachusetts Port Authority as the 1-millionth passenger to embark from the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal in Boston Harbor.
And he has more company than ever these days.
After several years of falling passenger numbers, Boston’s port posted record numbers of cruise passengers over the past three years, with 2010 shaping up to top the nearly 300,000 people who passed through the port last year. At the same time the midsize port has been growing, many other US cities have seen passenger traffic decline or stagnate.
In 2008, for example, departing passengers increased 21 percent from the prior year, compared with a total decline of 2.8 percent in North America.
And 2009 was another tough year for the cruise industry. While the number of passengers worldwide taking cruises continued to rise, ticket prices last year declined by about 12 percent. The Cruise Lines International Association expects that only a half-dozen US ports, including Boston, experienced significant growth in 2009.
For one, Boston has a large population base of “reasonably affluent people’’ who can depart on cruises from here, said Bob Sharak, the association’s executive vice president of marketing and distribution. It also has the kind of sightseeing, history, and dining attractions sought out by visiting cruise passengers — who make up 60 percent of the terminal’s traffic.
Boston is host to three cruise lines — Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America Line, and Royal Caribbean International — that travel between here and Bermuda and Canada from late April through October, and also make a handful of trips to Europe and the Caribbean
Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of the website CruiseCritic.com, attributes the continued rise in passengers to bigger and better ships. The perception used to be that “a cruise was all about being claustrophobic and confined and you have to sit with people at dinner that you don’t like,’’ she said. Now there are ships with dozens of restaurants and decks, not to mention surf parks, glass-blowing studios, and Broadway-style productions of “Hairspray.’’
Indeed, much of Boston’s growth is attributed to Norwegian Cruise Line’s decision to run increasingly bigger ships out of Boston starting in 2008. Between 1994 and 2007, the 1,400-passenger Norwegian Cruise Line ship that sailed from Boston to Bermuda didn’t even have cabins with balconies. Since then, Norwegian has upgraded its Boston vessel twice; it’s currently using the 2,000-passenger Spirit, with more balcony cabins and restaurants and an upgraded gym and spa, and is bringing in an even bigger ship next year that can host 2,200 passengers.
Norwegian’s Bermuda cruises attract mostly New Englanders; the Canada/New England cruises bring in the majority of their passengers from overseas or other parts of the country.
“I think part of the reason that Boston’s growing, and I think it still has some room to grow, is that traditionally cruise lines put some of the pokiest, oldest ships in Boston,’’ Spencer Brown said.
Thomas Gibbons’s girlfriend, Traci Cicerano, has taken in acrobats and bingo on the 10 cruises she has been on; now she wants to check out Norwegian’s new Epic cruise ship, which launches out of New York in July. The 4,100-passenger ship has a Cirque du Soleil-themed restaurant, the Blue Man Group, a climbing wall, and a lounge constructed entirely out of ice — tables, chairs, and bar included.
“They’re changing and adding things all the time just to get people back,’’ Cicerano said.
To keep the cruise business growing, Massport is spending $11 million to improve the Black Falcon terminal, namely creating a new check-in area on the third floor. Scheduled to be completed in August, the work will expand the facility by 40 percent, allowing it to accommodate even more passengers.
“We’re going to be able to handle more efficiently the larger vessels that are built every day,’’ said port director Mike Leone.
The cruise market is popular among New Englanders who aren’t crazy about flying and also among budget travelers, said Karen McCrink, a manager at Atlas Travel International in Milford. A family of four can book a weeklong Boston-to-Bermuda cruise through Atlas in mid-July for less than $2,800, including food.
Much of the trip payment doesn’t have to be made until about 60 days from departure — making it easier for vacationers to cancel without penalty.
“They have that opportunity to book far out and be able to see how things go,’’ McCrink said.
The Norwegian ships out of Boston are always full, chief executive Kevin Sheehan said, which is why the cruise line keeps expanding.
And Sheehan doesn’t expect to see his company’s steady growth slow down any time soon.
“It’s such an untapped market,’’ he said. “Less than 20 percent of people in the United States have cruised, and in Europe it’s even less — it’s 10 percent. It’s like the Wild West.’’
Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
